Manchester United failed to emerge from Sunday’s 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich on Sunday unscathed, with Jose Mourinho confirming that both Eric Bailly and Ander Herrera could be doubts for Friday’s match with Leicester City. The Premier League season opener, which will take place at Old Trafford, was already looking to be a complicated affair for the Portuguese as it is, with a host of stars either still absent or only just returning to training after their post-World Cup holiday.
“For the ones who played lots of minutes, it was hard once more and Ander, we don’t know, but it’s between him and Eric, apart from that, the boys resisted and tomorrow, for them, is a day off,” said Mourinho to MUTV after the game.
Thankfully, the manager didn’t appear to be hugely concerned about either player, but it’s the last thing that this United squad needs given the amount of players that aren’t available at such a crucial time of the season.
Paul Pogba, Maroaune Fellaini, Jesse Lingard and Ashley Young are only just returning from their respective breaks, whilst Marcus Rashford, Romelu Lukaku and Phil Jones have all only recently returned to training themselves. Nemanja Matic returned to the club during the recently completed pre-season tour of the United States, but Mourinho advised that the Serbian was carrying an injury from the World Cup that required attention, which saw him fly back to Manchester almost immediately. To make matters worse, club captain Antonio Valencia was also ruled out of the Foxes’ visit after picking up an injury against AC Milan in last month’s friendly, which was hardly excellent timing given as his obvious replacement, Matteo Darmian is known to be keen to leave the club this summer.
Mourinho will be hoping that both players can return to training quickly, having played such a big part in the club’s pre-season campaign.
